Solitary Son Just Wrote His Debut Album While Locked Up

Twenty-two-year old Gold Coast native Bronson Ellery has many names. More than a few are unflattering after he introduced himself to the Internet last year, as Solitary Son, his one-man hardcore musical machine.

Local police know him as Lizard Man and most recently, fellow inmates at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre christened him Avatar and Spider-Man. Ellery has just finished serving a three-and-a-half month prison term for wilful damage, attempting to pervert the cause of justice, and two counts of breaching bail.

Arrested by Taskforce Takeback, Queensland’s motorcycle gang crime unit, it was alleged Ellery made threats on behalf of a friend who’d damaged a car. They’re charges Ellery denies. “I just rang him and said, ‘Don’t dob on my mate or you’re fucked.’ I didn’t say I was going to hurt him or anything.”

Things seem to be looking up for Ellery with his own release from jail and his debut album Searching Souls released in April.

We caught up with the heavily inked Solitary Son find out more.
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Noisey: Taskforce Takeback is only interested in bikie crime.
Bronson Ellery: I used to have links to the Bandidos. I hate them now. I got turned on by them at the clubhouse. I walked out, though. I was sweet. They just turn on their own. They’ve done it to heaps of other members in the past. They reckon some place thought I burned down their tattoo shop, which I didn’t, so instead of fighting them because they were scared to, they just got rid of me.

I’ve heard of worse exits.
The club was a bunch of guys that try and act hard with tattoos. They have nothing better to do with their lives, so they join a gang and call it a name and wear the t-shirts and walk around town thinking they’re tough when they’re really not. They’re tough in numbers, but as soon as they’re by themselves they turn into bitches. Yeah, I might get some backlash on them one day [laughs].

How did an angry phone call land you in jail?
I think I went in because the news did a story on me saying I was trying to do good by releasing these new songs. I think because that was on the news the police wanted to prove it wrong or some shit, and act like I was still bad by putting me in jail, because they put me in jail a week after that story.

Were you on bail at the time?
Uh, I was on bail for public nuisance, for putting my hand to someone’s head like a gun. Yeah, it’s pretty stupid. Some drunken idiot was being a smartass to me in Surfer’s Paradise.

And in 2012 you were charged over a brawl in Harbour Town.
Yeah I got into a fight with a Finks member there. Three days earlier at the casino I’d seen them and I was talking to one. Another member’s come up to me and said, “What were you talking to them about? You trying to act tough?” We got into a fight there but it got broken up. Three days later I was in Harbour Town near the food court, and we saw each other and started fighting there.

Third time’s a charm.
I went to a remand centre, exactly the same as any normal prison. It’s still as shit as it can get. You’re doubled up, so you’ve got a cellmate you live with in a room three meters by three meters wide, in bunks. My cellmate was actually alright. A couple of my friends were in there in my block, so that was good. There’s different blocks and you just hang out and you train and that. There’s not much else to do in there but sit around like dickheads [laughs].

What about the whole drop-the-soap thing?
Aw nah, you get your own shower in your own cell. None of that actually happens. If people were like that, they get kicked out and bashed, because people don’t like that in jail, know what I mean? If anyone was doing that, everyone would team up against them and bash them and kick them out of the block. People don’t like that in there.

It sounds boring.
I wrote about nine new songs in there, and I’ve been recording them since I’ve been out, about three days a week at Sunnyside Studios in Worongary. I’ll be releasing an album called Searching Souls in April with 11 tracks on it. It’s a lot better and heavier than my previous stuff. I was going that crazy in jail, doing my head in that bad in there. I had nothing to do but write cool songs. I wrote all the lyrics and the song ideas. I’ve just actually released a new trailer for my album.

You got a lot of shit for those first two songs you put out last year.
Aw, yeah. There was. Since then I’ve disabled all comments on my YouTube videos. There were a lot of haters! It’s easier to hate than like, I think. As soon as one person says something negative about it, the rest follow. It was probably 15-year-old kids on their computers at home who don’t know anything about music.

The video and production were kind of rough.
I really did rush the first two film clips. I should’ve put a lot more time and effort into them and that’s why I think I got a lot of hate on them. This time I’m doing it the right way. Instead of getting a song out for the sake of releasing it, I’m planning it out so the storyline goes with the video clip. All this will make a lot more sense and it won’t be so rushed. I’m taking a lot more time so the end product’s a lot more meaningful and worth it.

You do everything, right?
Yep, I do the singing, screaming… there’s more screaming now in this new stuff. I do the drumming, the guitars, the bass guitars, the keyboard backing stuff. It’s a one-man show because I can’t rely on anybody else in the world, because it’s either not their destiny to be famous, or… you try to get people to practice and make up new songs, and people just aren’t dedicated to it. I’m 100% dedicated to it and I won’t stop until I get there.

Do you think you’re destined for fame?
100%. I’ve been laying in front of fucking stereos since I was two years old, drumming on pots and pans at three, got my first drum kit when I was five, started guitar when I was seven.

Is that why you’ve got so much ink? To burn your bridges so you have nowhere else to go?
Yeah. I knew I was never going to do a normal job or anything, because I knew I was going to be fully dedicated to music. I was going make it hard for myself and just cover myself in tattoos so there was no other option. I just didn’t care. I knew I was doing music, so it didn’t matter what I looked like, and appearing like this would also help for the genre of music it is now. It makes a statement.

Solitary Son’s debut album "Searching Souls" will be released in April.

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